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Friday, April 28, 2006

Saturday can't come fast enough....

Hmm.. where to begin? Today was just one of them days you want to forget about. Here's how it went for us today. We had to leave the hotel in NJ this morning at 4:45 in order to get to the airport to catch the plane back home to Phoenix. I told Jeff "Just in case, please set up a wake-up call" to which I got a "oh don't worry about it the clock is set... but ok i'll do it anyway." Guess what? Alarm didn't go off... but the wake up call did its job!

We get everything together and head down the elevator. We stand outside waiting for the car - that we had set up the night before - to bring us to the airport. 10 minutes later Jeff goes to the front desk and asks what is goin' on - They have no idea and called them to find out... "I think someone took their car, but we'll send another one... it will be 10-15 minutes." It shows up, finally; we get to the airport and get checked in. I didn't notice it at the time, but my ticket was a bit different than Jeff's. We get to the busy security check point and Jeff is whisked off to some speedy lane; I try to go with, but the guard pipped up and said "No, Sir - your ticket says you have to go into the *special* lane." Wonderful... I was flagged to be thoroughly (and it was -very- thorough...) checked out by security. So that took about another 30 minutes. We got there just in time to board thankfully.

Okay... on the plane... we're good now right? I swear, that was the bumpiest plane ride we have ever been on. I had just gotten out my breakfast (whole wheat bagel with peanut butter!) when it started and the bagel flew off the tray table to land peanut butter side down onto the window. It stuck... I had to peel it off. The total trip time was something like 5 1/2 hours, and it was bumpy for about 70%.

Anyway, sorry about the rant! Not much news on the house front yet - we are having an open house tomorrow though. I'll probably bake some cookies before we leave so the realtor can hand them out if he wishes. I was so tired by the time we got home I just wanted to go to bed, but I decided to just go get my exercising done and hoped it would wake me up. It did and I then ran off to the store to get stuff for tonight's dinner.

To end our crappy day, I made Pork Chops with Maple Mustard Glaze along with a cheesy baked potato. The chops came together in a snap and were done in less than 20 minutes. The chops are first seared in some butter to give them a golden crust and then kept warm while you make the sauce. Dijon mustard, pure maple syrup, broth and spices are made into a thick sauce, in the same pan, so you can get all the tasty bits that stuck to the bottom. A small amount of cream is added for a kiss of richness and then the chops are added back to finish cooking in the simmering sauce. They are very tender with a hint of sweetness and a slight twang from the mustard. If your chops are fairly large, you may want to finish them in the oven so they don't burn. The white bits on the potato are kosher salt, we sprinkle it on after we rub them with touch of olive oil for a crispy skin.